St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-07
The People Of the Black Ellis Frontier
Town Will Not Die in Debt to
Their StcmaChs.
They Eat the Highest-Priced Food to Be
Had, Seldom Buying Anything
Because It's Cheap.
They Are Also Good to Each Other
Spending Money for Charity With
a Lavish Hand.
The ''Big Bend Hydraulic" and the ''Da-
kota Water Power Company"
Briefly Discussed.

Special Correspondence of the Globe.
LEAD CITY, Oak, May 4.-Small econ
mics i'll customers do not bother trades
men in the upper country as they do
those of the railroad towns of the Black
Hills, and the trade is very different.
To illustrate the peculiarities of
strictly mining trade, take Lead City.
Stocks of goods carried and the pecu-
liarities of trade furnish key to an in
teresting study of the characteristics of
the people themselves. We can read
the lives of these people Oh the grocers
shelves and in his account books. Wages
are on liberal scale here, the pay of
miners being $3.50 per day, laborers
$3.50 and mechanics So. Money is plenty,
and all expenditure is on the scale of
flush times. Most miners are of foreign
birth, and the pay is from three to four
times what they received in Europe.
The first effect of such opulence is eX-
pansion of the stomach. The miner sets
out to have all he can eat and the best
that he can find, and he keeps it up
from that time. Richness of attire and
comfort of housing may come later, or
may not, but dietary habits that would
aStOniSh workman elsewhere persist.
HIGH LIVING.
On the grOcerS' shelves | find only
the best canned goods delica-
cles, peas. trutfies, mushrooms and even
pate de fOie graS are sold in large guam
ties; also imported cheese, Some of
these goods retail at $3.50 per bottle.
Imported aleS and fine liquors are in de-
ln1n1 Tho traIn no1I, "a Il ;oI,n ,f
priced goods. Only hard sugars are
kept in stock, and the best tea and cot
fee taken by any trade west of Chicago,
the travelling men say. Butter is uni
formly the best have seen west of FL
gin; a sturdy miners kick is stronger
than any butter: he doesn't allow any
stalwart oleO to down him. OF two arti-
cles at prices far apart he invariably
takes the highest, and the farther apart
the price the more he will not have the
cheaper article, Offer him "states''
eggs at 25c and ranch eggs at 45c, and
he'll reject the former with the manners
of lord. Several Touring mills in the
Hills have failed because they could not
price; nothing but the ''head of the bolt''
would go; all the rest went into the store
feed. AT hotels and boarding-hOuSes
it is the same. Everybody makes
speciality of eating and kicking" at any
cheap victuals. Consequently the hotels
at Lead City are conceded to set the best
tables of any in the Hills. 1t is much
the same in dry goods and clothing. A
dealer said that he never saw calico
dress in Lead City until two years ago;
they were first introduced for a calico
ball. Cheap-John clothing and jewelry
are no go, and to offer shoddy would be
perilOuS.
LIBERAL DISPOSITIONS.
1t is not all self-indulgence, however.
The people are, after all, more liberal
to objects of charity and public enter
prise than to their own Stomachs. 1t is
no trick to raise three or four hundred
dollars subscription among miners alone
for a needy family, and in the bidding
for the tiremen'S July tournament Lead
City raised out of the game" Deadwood
and all other competitors, the money be-
ing raised by business men.
GENERAL PROSPERITY.
With living on this scale it might be
supposed that none could prosper. 1t is
not so. Most of the workingmen ac-
cumulate money, and business failure
is rarely known, a necessary one never.
When the bank at Central (Which is
suburb of Lead City and subsists on
Homestake pay rolls) failed, it came out
that labOring people had $4,000 in time
deposits in its hands, and | presume
there is two or three times as much of
savings in the Lead City bank. Nearly
every worker has something invested in
mining stocks. True, some merchants
complain of bad debts and hard collec-
lions, but this is more due to an extra
ordinary system of credits and general
confidence in the solvency of customers
than to any other cause. The HOmeStake
stores set the pattern in this
respect and all follow. perforce. A
miner is never refused credit or an adj
vance of cash even when months behind
in his bills. Dealers buy for man any
thing he needs out of their lines-fuel,
hay, cow, cabin, a wagon, horse,
harness, and even team outfit, and
charge it in his account without inter
est The system is quite paternal.
Money is plenty; the companies dis
burSe about 100000 month, and the
whole situation is strong reminder of
the flush war times. The situation has
an interest for financier, as well of the
cOntractioniSt as of the eXpanSioniSt
persuasion.
DIET AND CHARACTER.
High living produces high action.
That Often-nOted, enormous difference
between the European and American
worker in productive capacity, which
has been attributed variously to climatic
influences, incentive of high wages, etc,
can here be seen to be the natural,
necessary effect of generous, stimulating
diet. Give human machines fuel and
they will carry high pressure. They
can't go slow. The Cornish and German
miner who does one-ffth of a days
work on black bread and cheese comes
here, eats three times as much and ten
times as generous food, and does five
times as much work. 1t is reduced for
employers to question of furnishing
fuel enough to run these machines up to
their full capacity without a correspond
ing increase of plant. To the social
economist and statesman, also, there is
a study. There is not to be found any
where more manly, indepenpent and
well-developed citizenship. Generous
diet is the foundation of liberal educa-
ton of practical nature. The high tone
of the firemen's banquet last month, re-
ported for your readers, is case in
illustration.
THE GREAT MYSTERY.
The "Big Bend Hydraulic'' mystery
has been afresh brought to public atten-
ton and increased by another mysteri-
Gus scheme projected by its president,
w. l.. Chadwick. The Big Bend Hy
draulic company owns and gently oper-
ates placer claims ON RAND river, about
twenty-five miles above Rapid City. 1t
has been in operation about three years
and during more than two of those years
has paid regular monthly dividends. in
all amounting to nearly 100000. Oper-
atoms have not been very active nor has